<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>BLOOD AND BONES by KaT_John_Adams</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27101830">BLOOD AND BONES</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaT_John_Adams/pseuds/KaT_John_Adams'>KaT_John_Adams</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Elsewhere University (Webcomic)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-09 04:35:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,257</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27101830</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaT_John_Adams/pseuds/KaT_John_Adams</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by this post: https://elsewhereuniversity.tumblr.com/post/183597796470/okay-so-how-fast-and-how-far-do-i-need-to-run</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>BLOOD AND BONES</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The mace impacted the quad with a stunningly loud thud - the sort of thud you usually don’t hear but read (in comic books with twice outlined letters, all capitalized). Basket rolled across the grass, having barely been missed. He’s seen the school motto and it had changed. This morning it had said “Sic Pluribus, Pluribum” which was just a tautology, but as he’d been walking by just now it had read “BLOOD AND BONES. BLOOD AND BONES. BLOOD AND BONES.” He hadn’t thought, just started running. He’d made it only halfway across the quad when instinct told him to stop and dive to the side. That was when the large mace wielded by nothing but the night air (A very angry night air) had nearly crushed him. He considered his options.</p><p>Option A: The auditorium. Lots of room, but he didn’t know how fast this thing could move, or what its space needs were. Fifty-fifty in there. Option B: The classrooms were a no-go. Dragging this through other students would be unconscionable, even if there weren’t many classes at half past eight. Option C: The parking lot. Too much risk of debris if this thing started swinging that mace for Michael Bay style points. Option D: Jimothy and… Basket wasn’t quite that desperate. </p><p>Which left Option E. The stupid option. The option that made no sense in the face of a superior, mostly invisible, very scary enemy. </p><p>Stand and fight. </p><p>So he pushed off the grass hard and backpedalled quickly to get some room. The mace lifted into the air, tipping back and trailing small clumps of dirt falling like snowflakes. He feinted right, then ran towards and under the mace. It swung to where he’d been, and Basket knew he was right - this was a person. Maybe a giant. They were definitely large. And they were invisible. He intended to grab a limb and maybe make some brave effort that probably wouldn’t make a difference, but he wanted to at least go down fighting. </p><p>He grossly underestimated–quite literally–his opponent, passed between two tree-trunk size legs, and subsequently became tangled in the creature’s flowing robe.</p><p>And he tripped on said robe.</p><p>The sudden jerk tipped the wearer backwards. </p><p>Basket was aware of a tremendous thundering rumbling rolling crash happening nearly all around him. And he also become aware that he could see the source. The giant must have been thirty foot high if he was an inch.</p><p>Basket suddenly felt much less confident in his already bad plan.</p><p>But he also held something. It was a cape - and it was just his size.</p><p>He couldn’t have said at the time or even today what possessed him to try it, but he swung the cape over his head, and the weight of it settled around his shoulders, and the world suddenly muted. No, it hadn’t muted. He could still hear the sounds around him, but they were muffled. And just as muffled was the giant sitting up, looking around and… beginning to cry?</p><p>The creature was massive. Three stories tall at least and a dull grey skin, prominent overbite, thick, flat and waxy hair, and two eyes that were threatening to flood with tears. It spoke, but much softer than Basket expected.</p><p>“Hey, gremlin! No fair, no fair! You aren’t supposed to take my cape, you’re supposed to fight me. Thieving isn’t proper fighting! Give it back!”<br/>
Basket took several steps back, giving himself space. And he realized that we was invisible to the giant. <em>The Cape. Of course. A little ‘Harry Potter’ isn’t it, though?</em> he thought to himself.</p><p>The giant pulled his massive knees to his massive chest and started sniffling, the mace set beside him and forgotten. “This is cheating, and that was my father’s cape. Come back, gremlin! Give me my cape. Please?”</p><p>Basket hesitated. This was the right time to run. He’d be like Jack. Stole from the giant and got away. <br/>
But once again, he felt running wasn’t the right call.</p><p>The sophomore took off the cape and walked back towards the giant.</p><p>Seeing Basket re-appear and hold out the cape, the giant smiled wide and gently leaned forward, delicately taking the cape. Basket watched the giant stand and lift the cape, but as the cape moved away, it did not shrink with perspective. By the time the giant was hanging it over one shoulder, it was long and broad enough to fit him. Basket felt a headache threatening - the sort that shows up when mortals see something slightly outside their ken. He fought it down and prepared to run, but the giant did not disappear or reach for his weapon. Instead, the huge creature took a knee and bowed his head, still sniffling a bit.</p><p>“Well, Gremlin, you beat me. First of your kind to do so, but I couldn’t let you take my father’s cape. He’d be so mad.”</p><p>Basket blinked. “I’m, uh. I’m not a gremlin. I’m a human.”</p><p>The Giant blinked in response. “That… Oh, that explains a *lot*. My mistake. But to be fair, your kind *look* a bit like gremlins and you are very small.”</p><p>The student smiled uncertainly. “Well, I guess we would to a giant.”</p><p>This caused a bark of laughter that shook the windows of the buildings around the quad. “Giant? I could never hope to get so big! I’m just a troll! Giants are twice again as tall!”</p><p>Basket’s mouth dried a bit to understand how much he’d stumbled into and also even imagining something so much bigger than this troll was… a bit too much.</p><p>The troll continued. “But still, you beat me, even if you aren’t the gremlin I was supposed to fight. So what is it you want, mortal? If it is within my power, it will be so. Except the cape, which is my dad’s.”</p><p>Basket tilted his head. “Wait, how old are you?”</p><p>The troll’s face twisted in displeasure and a bit of embarrassment. “I’m four-hundred. I’m <em>basically </em>an <em>adult</em>.”</p><p>The sophomore felt himself gag a bit. There was something disturbing about being three-hundred-eighty years younger than someone but also be considered more of an adult than them. He decided he had to be careful. It’d be wrong to take advantage of a child, even if that “child” was older by him by centuries. And it wouldn’t do, by the ways fae creatures worked, to refuse the terms he’d unwittingly already participated in.</p><p>“Can we be friends?”</p><p>The Troll coughed. “What?”</p><p>Uncertain, Basket repeated himself. He knew as soon as he’d spoken this left far too much open for interpretation than was safe, but he couldn’t turn back now.</p><p>“Friends? With me?” Basket nodded and the troll smiled wide. “Yeah! Yeah that’d be cool! I’ll come visit again when I can! But I have to go home now!” The troll stood and started to walk away but stopped and squatted down. “Oh, I’m -“ </p><p>Basket covered his ears at the sound of the troll’s name, trying to block a mind-shattering noise that wasn’t meant for human ears. The ringing faded and he smiled weakly. “Can I call you Billy?” </p><p>The troll smiled, “Yeah, I like that.”</p><p>Basket grinned. “Okay, Billy, I’m Basket.”</p><p>The troll beamed. “Nice to meet you, Basket! I gotta go, but I’ll see you later!” Without waiting, the troll stood and walked off, fading into the darkness as the night wrapped around him and he was gone.</p><p>The sophomore let out a ragged breath and realized. “Billy” hadn’t said when he’d come back.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>